To:THE NARROW COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS[1]

Published:First published in 1933 inLenin Miscellany XXI.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      pages79b-80a.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

21. IV. 1918

TheNarrow Council

Inthe affair concerning the reorganisation of the Red
Cross, which has become known to me through V. M.
Bonch-Bruyevich, I strongly advise:

1)thatwrittenexplanations be demanded

(a)from all members of the committee(§ 3, section I),

(b)from all departments, whichshouldhave sent
representatives—

—explanationsas to when the committee met, where its
minutes are, etc.

Itis necessary not only to admonish,but to prosecutea number of persons (they must be found) for non-fulfilment
of the decree.

[1]Lenin’sletter was due to the following circumstance. On
January 4 (17), 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars adopted a
decree on the reorganisation of the Red Cross on the basis of the
abolished Chief Board of the Red Cross that had existed under
the tsarist government, making over its property and funds to
the state. The work of reorganising the Red Cross was entrusted
(§ 3 of Section 1 of the decree) to a committee of representatives
of Soviet, military and public organisations. The committee was
instructed to submit to the Council of People’s Commissars
through the Council of Medical Collegiums a plan for reorganising
the Red Cross institutions. However, the committee failed to
fulfil the tasks entrusted to it, and this was brought to the notice
of Lenin by V. M. Bonch-Bruyevich, a member of the Red Cross
committee.